Digital firework display puts you in control

Virtual pyrotechnics that the audience controls via glowing orbs are hitting the road. Find out where to join in the fiery fun - and how to make your own.

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Web design guru Seb Lee-Delisle has created a firework display that you can reach out and touch without getting your fingers burned. It's called PixelPyros and it's a digital display made out of state of the art projectors, lasers and a massive screen.

Unlike other, more 'real' firework displays, what you see in the PixelPyros display is choreographed by the crowd. There's a row of bright orbs at the bottom of the giant screen, and if you reach out and touch one it'll launch a volley of virtual rockets into the sky.

Multiply this by a large number of people and you quickly end up with a scorching extravaganza that you only ever see in reality when a fireworks factory catches on fire and everything goes off at once.

Reach for the lasers! Safe as fudge.

If you like what you see and fancy having a go at making your own pretend pyrotechnics, Seb will be making the project's C++ codebase freely available on Github at a later date. For now, though, here's where you can see the big, proper version in the UK: